(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, and in particular, to a display device which selectively displays any one of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) images, and has a capacity of displaying the 3D image with the same resolution as that of the 2D image.
(b) Description of Related Art
Generally, 3D displays supply different views to the left and the right eyes of the user such that the user can take the depth perception and tactility for the viewing images. The 3D displays may be classified into a stereoscopic display where the user should wear viewing aids, such as polarizing glasses, and an autostereoscopic display where the user can see the desired 3D image without wearing such viewing aids.
The common autostereoscopic display utilizes an optical separation element, such as a lenticular lens and a parallax barrier, to spatially separate the left eye image and the right eye image displayed at the image display unit in the directions of the left and the right eyes of the user, respectively. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,465,175 and 6,046,849 disclose 3D image displays related to the autostereoscopic display.
However, with the conventional autostereoscopic display, the pixels provided at the image display unit are classified into the left eyed and the right eyed, and the left eye image is displayed at the left eyed pixels, and the right eye image is displayed at the right eyed pixels. Consequently, the resolution of the 3D image displayed by the display device is deteriorated to be lower than that of the 2D image by the half or less thereof.